This invention relates generally to electronic programming guides for facilitating the selection and recording of television programs.
Electronic programming guides may display a grid of television program times on one axis and channels or service providers on another axis. The grid may include particular programs listed by channel and time of presentation. The user can select any of the programs in the electronic programming guide for automatic viewing or recording. This may commonly be done by simply mouse clicking on the particular program listing to cause the program to be automatically tuned or automatically scheduled for recording or subsequent (future) viewing.
Television programs often run through a predefined series of shows called a season. A given television program may appear at a given time on a given day for a plurality of weeks. After the end of the season, a series of reruns of the previous programs may be broadcast. Thus, television program series generally have a season premiere and a season finale that constitute the first and last programs in a given series.
In many cases, users wish to determine when the season premiere will be broadcast since the users may have endured a extended period of reruns, conventionally over the summer. A user may wish to be sure to watch the premiere episode and to thereafter watch the program regularly until reruns start again.
Thus, there is a need for an electronic programming guide that facilitates the selection of season premieres and the capture of ensuing episodes.